What is the best way to make a million? Millionaires answer

The subject of getting rich or making your first million is nothing new here. We have covered it from every angle, perspective and path. This time, though, I was struck by the answers some multimillionaires gave in a Quora thread.

Saving and investing, and starting your own business, seem to be the most common answers. There is also one of our articles that I think readers have most underrated, and which I believe explains perfectly the real mindset you need to make a million euros or dollars. Recommended: 7 incredible ways to make a million

First case.

Alan Ham is a multimillionaire. You most likely haven’t heard of him, because he has never started his own business. He hasn’t invented anything either. He didn’t even inherit a single euro.

All he has done is put part of the money he earned throughout his life into a diversified portfolio of shares, starting when he was 20. That way, the appreciation of his shares plus the dividends let compound interest do its full work.

Of course, Alan warns that you need a very sensible head when it comes to money, saying he never spent money on depreciating assets such as cars, boats or the unnecessary luxuries that most people consider necessities.

Fifteen days of holiday abroad every year is one of the surest ways to end up with an empty bank account, says Alan, who also warns of the danger of living beyond your means by taking on debt.

Anyone can become a millionaire if they spend less than they earn and save and invest from the age of 20. You don’t need to be a genius or take too many risks, he adds.

Second case.

CamMi Pham works as a business adviser. She is not a millionaire, but she has a business idea that she put forward ironically, although you can be sure some people have become rich this way.

This is Pham’s plan.

Step 1: I’ll sell an online course or write my own book on how to get rich quickly.

Step 2: I’ll promote the course or book all over the internet until thousands of people buy it and I make my first million.

Step 3: Then I’ll become a multimillionaire by explaining to people how I really made my first million.

In fact, some authors (many of you know who I mean) only got out of poverty after selling a book on how to get rich.

(Read: The 5 best books on financial education)

But this is definitely the best advice anyone can give for building wealth through a business idea.

1. Sell one thing for more than a million: something you yourself bought earlier for much less.

2. Sell 100 things for 10,000 euros.

3. Sell 1,000 things for 1,000 euros.

4. Sell 10,000 things for 100 euros.

5. Sell 100,000 things for 10 euros.

6. Sell 1 million things for 1 euro.

Although on the surface the simplest option might seem to be selling a single thing for 1 million, the truth is that the easiest is to sell low-value things to a lot of people.

Then you write a book about how you came up with the idea, and multiply your fortune even faster.

Put this simply, making a million can seem really easy in theory. Then, in practice, we run into the usual difficulties (what to sell, how to sell it and who to sell it to…).

In the end, it is as easy or as hard as these people describe.

Warren Buffett himself said that you shouldn’t look to make 1 million dollars, but look for 1,000 ways to make 1,000 dollars. And now it is even more fashionable to forget about the money altogether, with messages like: “Don’t look for a way to make a million; look for a way to help a million people. If you manage it, you’ll make more than a million.”

All these messages are true. You just have to find a way to apply them properly.

Further reading

• 6 life lessons I learned while trading millions of dollars
• 5 steps to getting rich, by Charlie Munger, Buffett’s right-hand man
• You don’t need an original business idea to get rich
• 12 things millionaires know

Featured image: Tony, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.